Despite the rain, about 30 people showed up for the Grand Concourse tour in the Bronx, part of Open House New York.  Sam Goodman, an Urban Planner for the Bronx Borough, led the tour.  About midway, as we stood before a much-storied, internationally traveling Beaux Arts Sculpture in Joyce Kilmer Park (part of the slide show below), he challenged us to examine our prejudices: “who says a working class neighborhood can’t be beautiful?”

He got us into the lobby of several doorman buildings and the courtyards of others on a stretch of Grand Concourse not too far from Yankee Stadium.  Classic Art Deco and Beaux Arts detailing.  Murals in two on the buildings.  Elevators, oh my.  Check them out.

The people living in the buildings seemed more interested in getting on with their day than admiring the beauty of their surroundings.  I get it.  We live such busy, harried lives.  But to take a moment and see, really see.  That’s sweet.  Sam talked about what makes a building inviting.  It’s why I chose my building, which has a really pretty lobby, small floors, and clean, non-smelly halls.  What about you?

Riding the D train up to my volunteer assignment at the NY Botanical Gardens, I wondered how many people would venture all the way up there on a rainy day.  I met Bob and Jenny on the train, members of the Gardens, not aware that OHNY was there today, too.  We walked the 8 blocks over to the Gardens, and through their generosity, I joined them as “members” who could go into the Monet Giverny installations.

For those of you who saw the Giverny exhibit this spring, as I did with Helen and Al, or in the summer, I’m not sure the autumn plantings are different enough to warrant the long trip, unless you have a car.  Of course, if you haven’t seen it, it is lushly gorgeous.

In this slide show, you’ll also see the Fountain of Life and the neo-Renaissance building that houses the library and the Monet paintings that are on exhibit.  I also was blown away with the sculpture installations on the grounds, definitely new since my spring visit.

Even on a rainy day, this is a place of great solace and beauty.  The quiet, too.  And there was added fall beauty, although no leaf color yet, all over the grounds.

Going home on the 4 included a surprise treat–art in the subway.  One of thousands of OHNY tours I missed this year was the subway art tour.  There’s always next year…

There are 4 conferences in New York this weekend I wanted to go to, but I am only managing two.  Such is the life in New York.  While I’ll be missing the landscape conference and the Historic House Tours, today, I managed to make it to both JASNA in Brooklyn and Open House New York (OHNY) in Manhattan.

The day started with Cornel West, who is a Jane Austen fanatic, along with the 750 conference goers.  His style of delivery and even his point of view made for a fascinating point-counterpoint with Anna Quindlen.  While she focused on Austen as a miniaturist, who with that in-depth study models for writers a kind of greatness in the detail, he placed Austen as “the daughter of Shakespeare” in a Humanist tradition going back to the Greeks.  What does it mean to be human?  What is it affected by acknowledging our inevitable death?  We accomplish wisdom only through self-knowledge.  West argues that Jane Austen writes compellingly about each.

While Quindlen spoke from the heart, with tears in her voice, West leaned over his podium, spoke without notes, reference philosophy and literature through the ages, and impassioned his audience with preacher-like reverence.  He compared Austen with Checkov who said “I am a sad soul with a cheerful disposition,” then compared both authors in their quest to reveal, understand, and grow from suffering.  In a similar spirit to Quindlen, West said, “Jane Austen’s accomplishments go beyond our ability to keep up with them.”

Having first met West’s work while in graduate school, in writing filled with anger at patriarchal power structures and the oppression of African Americans, I was a bit amazed to see him leap to the stage, personally acknowledge many coordinators and scholars in the audience, and hug everyone within a few feet.  Perhaps, like all of us, age has brought a softening, a gentleness, a Jane Austen-ness that inevitably comes from the suffering of daily life.

After a rousing session on Georgian jewelry, I made my way back to Manhattan to the West Village.  With an hour to spare, I visited a Tibetan shop and stopped in to look at some fun antique clocks next door.

Then I followed this guy for awhile, with his orange wheel.  I have no idea what he was doing or where he was ultimately going.

I sat in a pretty park with a nice fountain, until it was time to make my way to the OHNY tour.

Manhole Covers.  Yes, really.  Quite wonderful.

The tour was led to the artist Michele Brody who has a passion for manhole covers, designed one that was temporarily situated on Wall Street, and recently has sold manhole cover inspired lighting.  You’ll see her picture in this slide show, along with some of the highlights.  I love how important the feet and shoes became in this venture of looking down at the minutiae of life.  I bet Jane Austen would have loved this tour.